After five years of waiting, welterweight champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather finally took up Manny Pacquiao’s challenge to a boxing match in one of the most anticipated fights of the decade. The match aroused the attention of celebrities like Clint Eastwood, Justin Bieber, Beyonce and Jay-Z. The fight itself however, didn’t quite live up to all the hype.
To make a long story short, Mayweather remains undefeated with a win streak of now 48 fights.
In round one, Mayweather started off controlling the flow of the fight, keeping towards the center, landing two heavy right hand punches while not sustaining much damage. Rounds two and three produced the same results except Pacquiao eventually landed a clean left hand blow.
Pacquiao primarily stuck to body jabs, and his powerful clout kept Mayweather on the outskirts of the ring. This isn’t unusual to Mayweather’s typical fighting style, being defensive and landing accurate punches.
Pacquiao undoubtedly was the primary aggressor for the rest of the fight, but to no avail. Many of his attacks were countered by Mayweather who had a firmer stance which allowed for more powerful hits.
Pacquiao landed some sweet combo moves and even a few strong left hooks. I’d also have to give him credit for repeatedly trapping Mayweather and lunging forward, despite becoming susceptible to being clinched. His flurry attacks were well disciplined and keyed in well with the audience.
On the other hand, Mayweather had considerably lower output than normal which he definitely used to his advantage, but it left the rest of the fight in the doldrums. For such a historic match I would’ve appreciated a nice little slugfest towards the end or more daring moves, but was disappointed.
Mayweather was simply the better fighter. He was more calculating and generally the more dominant force. His ability to control the pace of the fight as well as land the cleanest punches were certainly valued by the judges. According to MailOnline Sport, Mayweather landed 48 percent of his power punches, 34 percent of his punches and 25 percent of his jabs compared to Pacquiao with 27 percent, 19 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
The judges scored unanimously in favor of Mayweather, with all three deciding he won at least eight of the 12 rounds.
The reason I can’t truly call the match a good fight is because of the match-up. When two fighters with opposite yet complementary charismas and magnetism are pitted together to see which of the two will overcome, that is a satisfying fight. Pacquiao and Mayweather didn’t pair well and couldn’t achieve that same yin-yang effect. Instead, by round eight everyone knew what the outcome would be. Knowing who would win left people feeling enervated.